Josiah Spode
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Josiah Spode (23 March 1733 – 1797) was an English potter and the founder of the English Spode pottery works which became very famous for the quality of its wares. He is especially noted for the introduction of blue underglaze transfer printing into Staffordshire in 1781-84, and for the definition and introduction in c. 1789-91 of the improved formula for soft paste bone china (a form of soft-paste porcelain) which thereafter remained the standard for all English wares of this kind.
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[edit] Young life
Josiah Spode was born in a village that is now part of Stoke-on-Trent. Spode was a pauper's son and also a pauper's orphan at the age of six. He was apprenticed to potter Thomas Whieldon in November (Martinmas) 1749, and remained with him until at least 1754, the year in which Josiah Wedgwood became Whieldon's business partner. Wedgwood stayed with Whieldon until 1759. Spode worked alongside Wedgwood and with the celebrated potter Aaron Wood (father of Enoch Wood) under Whieldon's tuition, and was with Whieldon at the high point of production there.[1]
After John Turner left Stoke for Lane End in 1762, Spode carried on the factory of William Banks, Turner's partner, at Stoke for him for some time. There he began to make creamware blue painted as well as white stoneware in the manner of John Turner, and continued to perfect his excellent potting technique. He was powerfully influenced by Turner's work. He also made black ware and maintained a printing press for black transfer printing. He was engaged as master potter, but it is not known if his work there was consecutive or sporadic.[2]
[edit] Spode's Works
Spode opened a factory in Stoke-on-Trent in 1767. In the early 1770s he had financial partners or backers including Tomlinson (a solicitor), 1771, and Mountford (1774). In 1776, he became owner of the old pottery works at Stoke, formerly property of William Banks, on the site of the later Spode factory which continued operating into modern times. His business in creamware (a fine cream-coloured earthenware) and in pearlware (a fine white-glazed earthenware) was very successful. Josiah Spode I is credited[3] with the introduction of underglaze blue transfer printing into Staffordshire, in 1781-84. For this he employed an engraver and a printer from the Caughley factory,[4] and also had engravings produced by Thomas Minton. It was also Spode the elder who, between 1789 and 1793, established and finalized the formula for English bone china, for whereas bone ash had previously been added in other factories to the fabric in proportions of roughly 40%, Spode simplified and greatly improved the recipe (see Spode).[5]
Spode had various commercial premises in London, originally in Fore Street, Cripplegate. However the warehouse was finally settled in the former Theatre Royal, no 5 Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, which his firm occupied from 1795 to 1848 when the building was pulled down. (This had been the venue of the first performance of the Beggar's Opera in 1727.[6])
[edit] Personal and family
Josiah I was an accomplished violin player. He became a Freeman of the City of London in 1778 and was a Liveryman of the Spectacle Makers' Company.[7] Josiah was married to Ellen, who died in 1802 aged 76. They had two sons, Josiah and Samuel, and daughters Anne, Sarah and Ellen. Josiah and Ellen Spode (senior) are buried in Stoke-on-Trent churchyard.
Josiah Spode II (1755-1827) succeeded to the business in 1797. He was magnificently prepared for the role, an experienced salesman as well as a potter, having gained an invaluable knowledge of marketing in fashionable London. He was also a flautist, and was father of Josiah III, and grandfather of Josiah IV, a convert to Roman Catholicism, who founded Hawkesyard Priory near Rugeley.[8]
Josiah II married the daughter of John Barker, a manufacturing potter of Fenton, in 1775 at Stoke on Trent. Between then and 1782, when his wife died in London, he moved between Longton and Cripplegate, London, where he was doubtless manager of the Fore Street warehouse under the guidance of William Copeland, his father's friend and London partner. He came into power as head of the business on his father's sudden death in 1797. He was active in the North Staffordshire Pitt Club and entered politics. He became Captain of the 'Pottery Troop' Cavalry Division affiliated to the Staffordshire Yeomanry, at its foundation in 1798 until its disbandment in 1805. He was granted arms in 1804. In 1811, with James Caldwell of Linley Wood, he successfully opposed a move by government to impose taxation on the work of the Potteries.[9]
The second son Samuel Spode, for whom Josiah I erected the Foley factory at Lane End, produced salt-glazed wares up to the end of the eighteenth century. Samuel's son Samuel emigrated to Tasmania and afterwards to Queensland, where his descendants held positions in government.[10] There were also daughters
The Spode factory remains in operation in Stoke-on-Trent.
[edit] Notes
Josiah Spode II was in fact married to the daughter of Thomas BARKER (the brother of John) and Elizabeth HAMMERSLEY. This is confirmed in both of their wills, which mention their daughter, the late Elizabeth SPODE.
[edit] Sources
- Josiah Spode biography, from the Spode Museum.
- Arthur Hayden, Spode and His Successors (Cassell, London 1925).
- Alexandre Brongniart, Traité des arts céramiques ou des poteries considerées dans leur histoire, leur pratique et leur théorie (3 vols) (Paris, Bechet et Mathias 1844).
- M.L. Solon, A Brief History of Old English Porcelain and its Manufactories; with an artistic, industrial, and critical appreciation of their productions. (Bemrose and Sons, London & Derby 1903)
- Arthur Church, English Porcelain made during the 18th century (HMSO 1905)
- Richard Burton, A History and Description of English Porcelain (Cassell, London 1902)
- Leonard Whitier, Spode, A History of the Family, Factory and Wares from 1733 to 1833 (Barrie & Jenkins, London 1970).
